Okay, first off, nice proxies of the power 9 aren't hard to come up with. I've seen some very nice stuff that people have done. I'm sure that if they could, we could. One of our printers must be good enough. I haven't tried my new one out yet, so I don't know.

Second, you may have just hit on a brilliant idea. The Budget Essentials. Every card $5 or under. That sounds like a great idea. The Essentials is pure gas power amazing. The Budget would still be good, but not as over the top.

If a Budget Essentials were to be developed, I would suggest that the Essentials push towards the absolute best it can be. Full power. Proxies of any other expensive card that should be in it. For example, if we decide it needs something like the Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale, then we add it. This would cause a lot of rethinking. For the first time we'd actually have to examine and determine the absolute best mana base. Not just one based on the best I have available. That's been the case in the past as we've rarely set the mana base as standard to the Essentials.

Next, should the Budget Essentials be set at $5? $10? $7? What's the best? Determining that number might needs a little debate. $5 is easy, but is it too cheap? I guess not. It is budget after all. However, with $5, a lot of options are limited. Sweepers, for example, would be difficult. It would require a lot of work to create the Budget Essentials.

If this route is pursued, I suggest we finish the Essentials and then worry about the Budget Essentials after that. I would also likely construct the Budget Essentials because I think that would be pretty damned cool.